Disabling previous version tab

The Previous versions tab located under the properties of an element under windows vista allow the restore of an item at a later date. It acts as a shadow which is generated by the system for back up.

Moreover this function is very disk space consuming and sometimes useless. Below is a tips of how to disable this function:-

1. Disable shadow

Go to the menu Start and type services.msc in the search bar and then click OK.
Double click on the "Volume Shadow"
Change the startup type to "Manual" (Do not select "Off" as it will switch off System Restore).
Click on "Stop"


Go to the tab "Recovery".


Ensure that the three options "First, second and third failure" are on "Do Nothing".


Click on "OK" to confirm.

2. Disable the "previous versions"

Once the service disabled, the "Previous Versions" is useless.

So to lighten the menu and properties of elements, it is better to remove same as shown below:-

Before any configuration, make a back of the registry (recommended).


Open the Registry Editor (Start/run/regedit).
Scroll the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \

Create a new key with the name PreviousVersions (Edit menu> New> Key)

Create a new DWORD (32bits) under the following key with the name DisableLocalPage (Edit menu> New> DWORD (32 bit)).
Double click on the value and put 1 in the data fields.